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Final Poster

This is the final version of the poster I created for my music video.

The poster includes the final logo for the band 'Vivid Scheme' and the main track on the 10-track album, 'Intoxicated'.

Poster Design Update #4

This is the design for the poster which includes the band name - Vivid Scheme - and the name of the song and album, Intoxicated. Also featured are the logos for the record label, Parlophone, and the logos for Amazon.com and iTunes, from where the song/digipak release can be purchased.

Digipak Design Update #3

Here is a work-in-progress version of the Digipak cover. The character on the front, the band name, texts and the CD/Digipak tray designs are yet to be added.

TOP LEFT: Back cover.
TOP RIGHT: Front cover.
BOTTOM LEFT: Case interior.
BOTTOM RIGHT: Disc tray.

Digipak Design Update #2

Here I have used the spray tool on Paint to create a greater effect on many elements of the Digipak cover designs.

Digipak Design Update #1

Front Cover

Back Cover

Interior (left side)

Back (L) and front (R) covers

Above are the designs for the backgrounds I am planning to use for three of the sides of the Digipak design. Like the poster, I recreated images from the music video on the computer, to make it look less like a plain still image from the video itself.

Poster Design Update #3

The poster has been updated, with the main character added in from a real background shown in the music video to the digital one for the poster.

Here I have also been expirementing with fonts, and have applied my final choice of font - Poor Richard.

Poster Design Update #2

Here I have demonstrated how I created the background, step-by-step, and placed my character in front of it.

Poster Design Update #1

Today I worked further on creating the poster for the music video. I will be keeping the design featuring the man waiting for a bus, but instead of using paper cutouts, it was suggested to me that I use the computer to recreate the image. The reason for this was so that the poster seemed more original than simply using a still, plus giving the poster itself a greater effect and impact on the spectator.

I created the first of the images in MS Paint, based on the second image, and will later be importing the man as a paper cutout onto the first image to create the poster.

Poster Design and Shoot

The design for the poster is based on a still from the video, in which the man observes the girl he admires coming out of the cinema with yet another boyfriend. The bus behind him is advertising an online dating site to emphasise that he could/should try finding someone else, but he stares on at the girl he really admires. In the background is the cafe which will appear as a key location later in the video, when the man finally gets to talk to the woman.

I have shot the pictures above in both portrait and landscape formats to expirement with both and visualise what they will look like, even though I will be using portrait for the final poster.

Music Video Preview

Last week I completed a sample of my music video to show what the final production could look like. The video as shown here was edited using clips which were ready to show at the time, but just for this preview I used a different software because I was working from a computer at home (where the clips had been exported to), so the render came out in a much lower quality than what the final production will look like.

Unfortunately, as I've said, the video wasn't fully rendered. The raw footage, as an example, should look more like this:

Feedback so far (from the rest of the class) was extremely positive; the animation style used in the video proved to be a big success. The only criticism I got for the entire MV preview was that the narrative was quite hard to follow because the video was moving along very quickly, at least one other in my class felt more time was needed for everything to be taken in.

I may rethink the pace of the video as it is necessary that these clips are shown, to emphasise the character's emotions, although the video is currently moving along faster than the song which has a slower pace.

The Distribution Company

I have looked at various record labels which could potentially distribute the planned Digipak release of my music video, and I have now chosen Parlophone to handle the distribution of the video in the UK.



Parlophone is a British company set up in 1923 branched off from the 1896 German company Parlophon. I chose this to handle the distribution of my music video because it is a major UK distributor of music videos (MVs) and songs in the jazz, pop and rock genres, as well as novelty and voice recordings. It distributes indie music, so this would be the category for the indie folk song of my MV. Parlophone was responsible for the UK release of Radiohead's 'Paranoid Android', which also had an animated MV similar to the style of video I am aiming to achieve. The company is also notable for working with names such as Adam Faith, Kylie Minogue, Pet Shop Boys, Bernard Cribbins, Peter Sellers, The Chemical Brothers, Coldplay, Jim Dale and being a major starting point for The Beatles.

The parent company of Parlophone is the London-based EMI, which joins Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment to form the 'Big Four' major record labels in the world.

Storyboards - #2

I recently did this design using very basic MS Paint to visualise how the music video could look if done using colour or part-colour. As well as this, I have been looking at the possibility of animating the music video digitally, using cutout animation on the computer as per the entire (except for its pilot) South Park series.

Shooting my music video in this way would reduce the problem of lighting, which is something I have had to control with traditional paper cutout animation because the shots I have done were filmed at different times during the day. It may also speed up the production process because I have had experience on this kind of animation before and I am familiar with the process.

However, I am enthusiastic about the idea of trying a new challenge using traditional drawings, so I am strongly leaning towards using paper cutout animation for the final production.

Initial Audience Feedback - #1

I have recently received audience feedback for the early development stages of my music video, using other members of my media studies class, close friends and family as critics. Every time the first comment has been the recognition of the "Tim Burtonesque" style which I have chosen to adapt, which thankfully is what I have been aiming for, as made clear with the shapes and formations of the buildings. After seeing the film opening to 'Juno' I have decided to adapt similar colour schemes to the drawings, which are currently black and white but are being amended as I have mentioned here.

Feedback has been positive and sparked interest from classmates, family and friends for being unique as an animated production. My classmates have even wanted to help through sending me potentially similar material to what I want my final production to be like:
http://vimeo.com/30604075
http://vimeo.com/1464977

I hope to obtain further feedback once more material is ready to show, but at present this shows that the music video I want to make is going in the right direction.

Digipak

Recently I have started thinking about how the music video I am producing will be distributed to its specific target audience. For the distribution of my music video, I will be using a digipak for the packaging of the music video's release to home entertainment formats, most likely a VCD or a DVD. This would allow consumers of the digipak to receive additional information about the music video, because a digipak has a gatefold which opens up to reveal (usually) 4 or 6 sides to the case. The image below shows an example of a digipak:

This would be useful if I wanted the MV to be available in more than one format (CD, VCD, DVD, BD etc), give information about the content such as the track listings, and I may even include a write-up on the making of the project, given it is unique to other similar works for its animation style. This could include images from the final production as seen on the VCD/DVD, which would be included on the front and back covers, and also photography from the making of the music video on the inside cover/s.

Storyboards - #1

Due to a faulty internet connection at home I have not been able to update my blog as much as I'd like to, but since my last post I have been working on storyboards and artwork for the music video.

These images, apart from one, were all hand-drawn. The last one was drawn on my iPod whilst I had a new idea in my mind and no paper in reach. The drawings all received interest from the rest of the class, occassionally coming over to see what I had done.

Research into Institutions and Audiences

I did research into other music videos prior to creating my own, and I feel that due to the distinguised look of my music video thus far I feel my production will challenge the conventions of typical music videos, because music videos are commonly performance-based (and form the majority of the market for music videos) whereas mine will be narrative-based.

I looked at many animated music videos for research, including:

Radiohead - Paranoid Android http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPLEbAVjiLA&ob=av3n

Queens of the Stone Age http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcHKOC64KnE&ob=av3e

Gorillaz http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoQYw49saqc

Aha http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djV11Xbc914&ob=av2e

Pearl Jam http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDaOgu2CQtI&ob=av3e

Unkle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqZtWzPNEJw

Arcade Fire http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqGiCXtvokM&feature=fvst

Fin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXEM70Od7PE

Mogwai http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0lYOQYTKVo

B.o.B. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PTDv_szmL0

Skindred http://www.muzu.tv/gb/skindred/pressure-music-video/220987/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_U377vst5o&ob=av3n

I feel my decision to create my music video using animation will be a strong one because even though animated music videos are rare, there is a profitable market for them, as evident from these music videos I have listed. They have a distinguised style from other music videos which makes them unique, so I expect the audience for my video will consist of many different people. This audience will mainly be fans of the band or fans of rock or independent songs, but will also include animation fans and viewers who enjoy videos with a creative aspect.

'Keane - Bedshaped' is a music video which I feel will be hugely influencial for my own music video:


There are many set conventions for music videos typically, i.e. focus on the artist of the song and many close-up shots of his/her face. Whilst even 'Keane - Bedshaped' shows the band through silhouettes, I plan to challenge the conventions of other MVs by having my own driven purely by the narrative. I feel this will be effective because it will give my video a creative aspect which audiences can enjoy, and I feel and hope that audiences will be able to appreciate something unique.

Cutout Animation

I've decided to shoot my music video using a technique known as cutout animation, which has been most famously used in 'South Park', 'Charlie and Lola', segments of 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' and later the 'Monty Python' feature films. The segments from Monty Python's films and shows were animated by Terry Gilliam, who explains in this video about the techniques he used:



I have chosen to use this form of animation because it is relatively simple to achieve, whilst (when done properly) it looks very effective. I already have the facilities needed such as lighting, stages and greenscreen effects which I have used in other animations. This technique would also be much less time consuming - the characters can look exactly as I want them to, and no time will be spent searching for live actors or filming locations.

This would be my second time working with cutout animation, however, I am very familiar with stop-motion photography and can make it work in a similar way.

Below is an example of my stop-motion work from the summer of 2008 (probably a bit primitive compared to what I can do now!!):



I'm also keen at experimenting with animation so I am looking forward to trying this new method.

The Design and Look of my MV - #1

In order to decide how my music video would look, I watched other examples of animated music videos to see if any would match (and even influence) my vision.



The above video, 'Keane - Bedshaped', I thought was a very good example of how my animated music video could look. The style of the buildings and housing is something that may influence the design of the buildings and housing in my own work, as I've always known I wanted imagery in the video of the woman in silhouette form.



'Arcade Fire - Power Out' also shows a similar image of how the buildings and housing could look in my MV. It also shows a look and feel that I also feel is very close to how I would like the animation in my MV to look. I wanted the animation in my work to be on a borderline so it has a 'cartoony' look and feel about it, yet it would also be realistic enough to be believable and work well with the song. Even though I may want to use brighter colours (such as a yellow background through a house window, as I mentioned in a previous post), I feel these videos are very close to how I want my final product to look.